The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-04-12

The building trades gaining steadily. and in
the tool-making and implemen manufacturing
industries there is a steady increase, with an
improvement in the rate of wages.
New York is credited with 3oS. 900 wage-work
ers; Philadelphia. 100000 Chicago, 100000
Boston, 10 900; Cincinnati. 9o,10O: Pittsburg,
7S.100, and st. Louis 50. 500. Minneapolis,
which is boasting more loudly than any city
the continent about itself and its coming great
ness. has only a corporals guard OF $500 outside
OF saw mills and car shops
The tendency among manufacturers every
where is to increase capacity and motive power
The shop capacity of the country is oversold in
filing orders for all kinds of power and machin-
cry from the smallest engine to the largest Cor
liss. Competition will soon show itself IN pro-
duction, and those who have the largest capacity
expect to stand the pressure best
nary proportions in the South. Here are few
samples of them and of what the small mechan-
les are doing: rollngmil and chain works at
Selma. Ala: street car factory at Birmingham;
large foundry at Rome; chemical plant at West
FONT Tenn; stove foundry at MorrIstown;
large machine shops at Columbia; wirehoop
company at West Nashville
1t Is probable that the complaints so often
made that American labor was discouraged from
entering the mechanical trades will be largely
overcome during the next two or three years
should the demand for labor continue. One
reason for this is that the cost of subsistence is
declining. while the rate of wages is increasing,
thus tending TO crowd agricultural labor into
mechanical pursuits. This tendency has also
been increased by the decentralized progress
going on in our industries which is leading to
the establishment of industrial concerns, large
and small. West and South. These new indus
trial enterprises, besides creating a local demand
for foreign products. are helping to equalize the
industrial conditions. and are encouraging thou
sands of young men who saw no future in rural
employments to make something OF themselves
in the industries. In the Southwest within the
past six months. between five hundred and six
hundred large companies have been organized
for industrial operations. Many OF them are
started by mechanics, with capital ranging
from $10 000 to $50, 900. from the East and North
Their chances are good, and they are encouraged
in many cases by promises Of no local taxation,
free land and the good will of the communities
who invite them
Labor is everywhere finding employment in
new enterprises, and at slight advance in rates,
both for common and skilled labor, over last
year. The knowledge of the heavy demand for
labor has reached foreign countries, and English.
German and Italian labor is either preparing to
come or coming to find employment From
southern Europe large numbers of common
laborers are pouring in, while from Germany
and Great Britain the bulk Of the laboris skilled.
Even textile workers in small numbers have
been attracted hv the rumors of high wages in
America and their coming is welcomed by manu-
facturers who are anxious to infuse q new ele-
ment into the ranks of labor. The German
laborers are tractabe and contented, desiring
constant work rather than high wages; the Brit
Ish workmen, the contrary, are exacting, and
insist upon shorter hours, the highest possible
pay, trades unions and a constant suspicious
oversight Of their employers doings. The influx
of foreign labor will not likely reach dimensions
that will be of benefit to employers in the way of
competition. The rates have been fixed in nearly
all branches of American industries and the
newcomers will come in at these prices. The
leaders of American trades unions are furnish
ing co-workers on the other side with informa
ton concerning employment, wages. ETC., and
intend to keep them fully informed in order that
deceptive allurements may not induce them tc
come.